Topic: Drakan: Rekindled Flame OR Eragon: Riders Return

[Zhaleskra]

This is a "game seed" I gave some thought to last night. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble writing the introduction. Rekindled Flame takes place after The Ancient's Gates.

This is my intro so far:

After the return of Mala-Shae, Rynn and Arokh began a new quest: a quest to find pure-hearted people to bond with the Spirit Dragons* who have reentered Drakan. You are newly bonded to your dragons as you set out to re-establish The Order of the Flame.

*They're called Dragons of the Order, Spirit Dragons or "The Elder Breed" but are not related to the Spirit Dragons from Monsters: A Field Guide. I'd probably base them off of the Dragons of Kingship.

I apologize for not having an Eragon intro . . . yet.

Some rule thoughts . . .
Race: Human, although blood talents are allowed (as long as it's not Gryx, Gnome, or Halfling), Dragon (each player will control 1 human character and 1 dragon character).
Professions: This one's a hard call, especially since I've only played the Playstation 2 Drakan game. Rynn, would probably be a Warrior Mage. There are pure warriors and pure spell-users. I was thinking any except the special niche professions from the HARP main book would be okay.

The Bond: The Human's soul and the Dragon's soul are bonded into a single soul. Mechanic-wise: the human and the dragon share XP, level, and damage received. At the moment I'm not sure if I want to do some sort of average of Concussion Hits, base it off the human's, or what. Just remember: if you die, your dragon dies; if your dragon dies, you die.

Communicating with your Dragon: Using Drakan, both Human and Dragon communicate soley by speech. For Eragon, the human may speak or use his mind; the dragon communicates telepathically.

When I saw the Eragon movie (and I'm glad I saw the movie before I started reading the book), the explanation of the Riders reminded me of the Ritual of the Bond from Drakan. The Eragon connection may also appeal to younger gamers.

[Unwise]

A few things to consider:

1. How many players do you have?
2. If you have 3+ dragons, what on earth will they fight against?
3. There are few problems that cannot be solved by tonnes of muscles, scales and flames. Coming up with plots could be very tricky.
4. Stealth, picking locks, traps and other such things do not lend themselves to this campaign.
5. How do you distinguish one dragon from another to make them feel unique?

[Zhaleskra]

1. Right now it's just an idea written on my document of game seeds on my laptop.

3. Both Drakan and the world on which Alageasia reside have one of the same problems: mountains so high even dragons can't fly over them due to atmospheric resistance or thinning air. In Drakan: The Ancients' Gates, there are caves that are too small for Arokh to fit in, but Rynn can explore them alone.

4. There are places in both worlds where all of those things work. I am considering perhaps that the player controls just the human or human and dragon when they are together.

5. Personality and scale colors.

[Zhaleskra]

Drakan
Dark Union (organization, oppossed to the Order of the Flame)
Evil Dragons (Blackwings, Desert, Red)
Grull (equivalent to goblins, amphibious appearance, climate adaptable)
Half-Men
Liches
Sasquashes
Scavengers
Skeletons (dragon "bone dragons" and human)
Trogs (short for Trogolodytes)
Undead, other (usually a variant on the skeletal theme)
Wartocks (equivalant to Orcs)
Yeti

Eragon
Humanoids
Kull (Urak-Hai)
Shades
Urgals (Orcs)

[Zhaleskra]

Here I am, necroing my own thread. Upon further replaying of Drakan: the Ancients Gates, I feel that RuneQuest captures the feel of that game's magic system best. Eragon, I think, would be better for HARP.

[Dr_Sage]

I am kinda late but:

Most UNwise points are good ones, and a campaign like that would be epic by definition but still doable.

If you realy wanna go that way, maybe:

* Consider PCs as the dragons (maybe even putting npcs as the humans);
* Make a story arc that has a beggining - mid - ending, not an open one;
* Using DnD dragons, not HARP ones. Basilaly you have the young dragons in DnD and other options. Basicaly in HARP dragons are nature forces, not riding creatures.

Just my 2 cents.

[Zhaleskra]

I am kinda late but:

Most UNwise points are good ones, and a campaign like that would be epic by definition but still doable.

*sigh* I lament the modern usage of the word "epic" to mean "big, badass X".

If you realy wanna go that way, maybe:

* Consider PCs as the dragons (maybe even putting npcs as the humans);
* Make a story arc that has a beggining - mid - ending, not an open one;
* Using DnD dragons, not HARP ones. Basilaly you have the young dragons in DnD and other options. Basicaly in HARP dragons are nature forces, not riding creatures.

In Drakan at least, the Spirit Dragons/Elder Breed are forces of nature but are allied at the -- to coin a new term here -- soulular level with their riders. The d100 systems have more of the feel I'd want for such a game. Council of Wyrms was a fun diversion when I played it at a con, even if my dragon became a fine slag mist.